One Category at a Time: Documentary

After last year's high watermark in the category, this year's contest for Best Documentary is a puzzlingly vague one to try and anticipate. Presumed frontrunner and critical darling Project Nim was surprisingly left out of the discussion (although James Marsh already has an Oscar, so I won't lose too much sleep over it). What we're left with is a quintet of films which have received little precursor attention apart from three collective guild citations.

My Awards nominations: Foreign Film

As it is with the documentaries, my opportunities to take in gripping world cinema are forever limitted by their timid release startegies. I consider myself lucky to be able to see the ones that I do, and even luckier if they happen to be good. So if these change at all before (or even after) I announec my winners, it's because I've been forced to play catch-up with foreign titles only just breaking into my local theatres. For the time being, are the five best Foreign Films I've seen this year:

Bullhead (Michael Roskam):

Thanks especially to a brooding lead performance from a bulked-up Matthias Schoenaerts, this starkly shot, slow-boiling crime drama keeps the viewer's attention firmly locked on its tragic central figure without allowing the numerous less robust subplots to become distracting. Tough, but elegant, film making.

Miss Bala (Gereardo Naranjo):

Naranjo perpetually keeps us as confused and uncertain as our frightened heroine is regarding the complicated politics of the drug dealers and their constantly shifting allegiances. We're never sure what chain of events will occur next. We only know that it'll be violent. He relishes in long takes that all look terrific.

Pina (Wim Wenders):

If you're a fan of dance, then you'll be excited and invigorated by Wim Wenders' unique 3D ode to the late Pina Bausch, renowned interpretive dancer and choreographer. You've never seen dance done quite like this on film. Gene Kelly himself would be impressed!

A Separation (Asghar Farhadi):

An exceptional domestic drama about the failure of human relationships, and not just marital ones as the title implies. It's more about the problems affecting all people in Iran than just the characters in the story, told with an polished aesthetic technique that captures the best of every performance, and there are a lot of them.

La Soga (Josh Crook, Manny Perez):
Originally a TIFF premiere in 2009, Josh Crook's gritty Dominican crime saga got a miniscule release in 2011 and more or less fell into obscurity. But it's a swell thriller all the same, with a caustic undertone about the ills of a society in which innocent children are schooled by a society built on crime, like piglets being raised for the slaughter.

Foreign Language Film shortlist

The nine Foreign Language Film finalists are:
Belgium, Bullhead, (Michael R. Roskam)
Canada, Monsieur Lazhar, (Philippe Falardeau)
Denmark, Superclásico, (Ole Christian Madsen)
Germany, Pina, (Wim Wenders)
Iran, A Separation, (Asghar Farhadi)
Israel, Footnote, (Joseph Cedar)
Morocco, Omar Killed Me, (Roschdy Zem)
Poland, In Darkness, (Agnieszka Holland)
Taiwan, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, (Wei Te-sheng)

I'm only lucky enough to have seen two of these so far; critical phenoms Pina and
A Separation, both of whom possibly owe their presence here to the saving grace of the executive committee.

Due to their typically timid releases, I don't get to catch up with most foreign films until after awards season (Argh!). But I usually manage to see at least three or four of the Oscar nominees before the show. Which of these nine will survive this weekend's marathon screenings?

WGA nominees announced

We have to remember not to put too much stock into these nominees. Many screenplays in the hunt for Oscar recognition were not signatories of the WGA, thus were not eligible. Anyway, here they are:

Original Screenplay
50/50
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris Being the only viable Best Picture contender, I imagine this is the winner
Win Win
Young Adult

Obviously, The Artist, which was ineligible, is likely to replace one of these on the Oscar ballot. I say Bridesmaids is the weak link. The Academy and I may not always agree but they usually try to keep it classy. However, Young Adult may be a bit too acerbic and sour to win them over, but if any branch is willing to give Diablo her fair shake, it's the writers.

Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants Here's your winner... (sigh)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
Moneyball

The Adapted Screenplay situation looks fairly close to my predicted Oscar five. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy wasn't eligible, but I'd expect the Academy to prefer it to Dragon Tattoo. War Horse never was a writer's showcase, so it's still strong for a Best Picture nomination. But for the win? I don't know. A Screenplay nomination is uber important.

Documentary Screenplay
Better This World
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Nostalgia for the Light
Pina
Position Among the Stars
Senna Winner?

Disappointing that Project Nim didn't show up here. I thought it was quite well written. At any rate, Pina and If a Tree Falls are the only two nominees on the documentary branch's shortlist, and I seriously doubt Pina's chances anyway, so this doesn't help us much in predicting Best Documentary.

Reviews

As usually is the case for me this time of year, I need a space to catch up with capsule reviews I've neglected to post upon seeing the film in question. I'll update this post throughout the season as I see more films.

Documentary Feature finalists

The Academy's documentary branch has revealed their 15 finalists for next year's Best Documentary Feature award, and as always, they have made some perplexing snubs. Critically praised favourites like Into the Abyss, The Interrupters, and Senna (on which I was much cooler than its many fans) were left off. Notable inclusions are the German dance documentary Pina (also Germany's Foreign Language Film submission) and James Marsh's Project Nim, the latter of which is a likely nominee, and - given the omission of much of its stiffest competition - a possible frontrunner for the win.

The full list after the cut.